Blockchain Part 2

­

Blockchain Part 2

By Nathan Smale

Firstly, you probably don’t need your own token regardless of what your mate at the BBQ on the weekend told you. For a cryptocurrency to really work, you need global adoption which is why single brand cryptocurrencies or single use cryptocurrencies are difficult to establish. So start by adopting some cryptocurrency into your business and then once you become comfortable with that, then you can look at your own. Back to the analogy of the TCP/IP operating the internet from Part 1, if you don’t understand the operational protocols of the internet, focus on building your adult ecommerce website before trying to become the hosting company.

Rather than looking at your own cryptocurrency, a more practical way to look at cryptocurrency initially is to look at it as an alternative payment method to add to your collection – similar to adding PayPal when it launched in Australia in 1998. It can be low cost and low risk, it will start small but it can start to add incremental revenue. There are 5 key ways that cryptocurrency can add to your bottom line:

There are zero chargeback via cryptocurrency. Currently a consumer effectively submits their credit card details and someone takes money from that account. That action allows for a chargeback to be raised. With cryptocurrency, the user sends the funds to you, and only they can initiate the transaction so there is nobody for them to complain to. It is important to consider this though, they can’t complain to the bank but they can complain to you, it just becomes YOUR decision on how you handle this.

If you currently have a large drop off at the credit card input stage, there are several potential reasons for this, two of which are; fear of it appearing on their credit card bill due to judgement by their partner, family, bank manager etc and the fact it feels more confronting again to type in your billing address. If they had any doubts before the checkout, these are both huge barriers. Crypto removes both of these, it is effectively a private transaction as it is a transfer between two wallets, no personal details, no business names.

Many credit cards get declined for a whole host of reasons. If you have a significant volume of failed transactions, consider offering a cryptocurrency payment solution to these users. Typically they are as frustrated by not being able to get what they want as you are not being able to get their money. Once they get beyond that first hurdle they will be able to transact time and time again.

Transaction fees in cryptocurrency (sometimes called gas) typically sits with the consumer when they are sending funds. Some services that help facilitate payments for the adult industry such as intimate.io charge a fee to the platform to manage the technology and promote the channel etc, this transaction fee is capped at 1%. If you have the choice between processing $100 via intimate and $100 via (insert large commercial bank charging a ‘high risk’ premium here), you can imagine what impact that could have to your bottom line over the course of a year.

Currently there is an opportunity to pick up some new users simply by providing a cryptocurrency option, that audience size is currently small but many of them have significant amounts of crypto and will spend well anywhere that accepts it. Whilst the market is new you might be lucky enough to lure a few new customers with a cryptocurrency offering. One leading cam site in Europe demonstrated that the average spend of their credit card customers was around $28 per transaction, their average cryptocurrency transaction was $68. So initially whilst the growth in net new users may be small, they are typically high value.

This isn’t to suggest you will notice huge volumes in the next 6 months, but don’t wait 12 or 24 months till your competition is already set up and fine tuning their processes before you start to engage and think about how you could effectively add cryptocurrency into your strategy. Whilst it might only give you a slight marketing edge to think about accepting cryptocurrency now, at some point the pendulum will swing fast to it costing you customers if you are the only provider or platform that isn’t accepting cryptocurrency.

In transparency, intimate.io is an Australia based, adult focussed cryptocurrency that offers all of the above features, though the major features discussed above are common amongst the key consumer facing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.

In addition to the standard functionality above, intimate.io includes an integrated cross platform, pseudo-anonymous trust and reputation system which will enable all transactions in the adult industry globally to be conducted in a safer, more respectful manner.